Protecting Threatened Lemur Habitat in Madagascar

Who doesn’t enjoy watching a good nature documentary? As well as allowing us to marvel at the beauty of the natural world, nature documentaries have been found to increase our interest in the species being filmed and support shifts in environmental attitudes.¹

For us in developed countries, documentaries showing the enormous variation in animals and plant species throughout the world can be crucial to connecting us with nature in an increasingly urbanised society.  However, even in the remote community of Sainte Luce where our lemur project is based, despite people being surrounded by nature, people are still shocked at just how valuable and extraordinary their local biodiversity is.

The way we interact with nature may be very different across societies, but the way in which we spark interest and appreciation for nature could be quite similar. Therefore, this World Lemur Day, Project Ala decided to celebrate by holding film screenings in Sainte Luce of the fabulous documentary series ‘Madagascar’, translated in Malagasy.

By visualising the dramatic landscapes and diverse wildlife across Madagascar, the screenings proved to be a novel and exciting way to raise awareness of the country’s unique biodiversity and the importance of conserving it. By doing so we hoped to highlight the value of nature in Sainte Luce and engage the community in Project Ala’s conservation work to reconnect fragments of littoral forest habitat and support lemur populations. Sainte Luce is a vitally important location for lemur conservation because it supports populations of four different endangered species: The Anosy Mouse Lemur, Southern Woolly Lemur, Thomas Dwarf Lemur, and Collared Brown Lemur, all of which are worth celebrating!

Over the two-day lemur-inspired event we held four screenings at Manafiafy and Ambandrika Primary Schools and a fifth screening for Project Ala’s stakeholders, including corridor landowners, members of the forest management committees, and a representative of the regions Environment Ministry. As we were unable to hold a community-wide mobilisation effort due to COVID-19, it was important for us to reach as many members of the community as possible, while ensuring their safety. Therefore, the documentary was shortened so we could hold multiple screenings with 30 people attending each and hired extra community members to ensure people’s safety within any crowds. Following the screenings, we held a quiz to test students and stakeholders on the documentary, general lemur knowledge, and on Project Ala. Prizes of exercise books and pencils for the new school year and refreshments added to the celebratory atmosphere.

Smiles and enthusiasm on the day showed that everyone enjoyed the event, but feedback provided by the students highlighted its successes. One student expressed that they had not heard of the supercontinent of Gondwana that Madagascar broke away from 180 million years ago, giving rise to the high levels of endemism that we see across the country today. Another student did not realise that tenrecs were only found in Madagascar and nowhere else in the world. Whilst another did not know that the Variky, or Collared Brown Lemur, which can be seen easily in Sainte Luce during the day, is cathemeral, meaning they are also active during the night.

Raising awareness of nature alone will not be enough to lead to behavioural change for conservation in the long-term. However, when placed alongside Project Ala’s other engagement and capacity building activities, celebrating events like World Lemur Day plays an important role in creating value and interest in nature which are the building blocks for achieving the local support and leadership required for conservation success. Despite the unusual circumstances this year, Project Ala could not let World Lemur Day pass us by and so we joined the world in celebrating these incredible species at the local level, where it matters most.

We would like to thank the Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership for providing a copy of the translated documentary.

¹ FernándezBellon, D., & Kane, A. (2019). Natural history films raise species awareness—A big data approach. Conservation Letters, 13(1). doi: 10.1111/conl.12678.

The ultimate goal of a conservation project is to help protect a piece of the Earth’s biodiversity, in the present and the future. But projects cannot last forever, therefore their impact must be sustainable. SEED Madagascar’s mission is to increase the capacity of local actors to achieve sustainable environment, education, and development goals. This is no different for Project Ala, which works to protect the unique biodiversity of Sainte Luce’s littoral forests by connecting habitats and building the capacity of staff, stakeholders, and communities for the forests long-term management.

Like the rest of the world, monitoring for Project Ala halted as the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic became apparent. With the majority of international staff returning home, volunteers suspending their travel, and national staff restricting their movements, it seemed unlikely that activities could resume for a long time. However, with careful and continuous assessment of the local situation and government guidelines, these unusual circumstances gave rise to a novel and positive opportunity.

SEED’s SCRP guides Hoby and Tsiraiky have taken on the great responsibility of continuing monitoring the corridors and remnant forests for Project Ala in the absence of international staff. This is no mean feat, requiring rapid training in equipment use, data collection and recording, and leadership skills to train and coordinate three local guides in Sainte Luce. International staff have been busy from their various home countries producing detailed protocols and training workshops to support the guides in their new roles and ensure that they have all the information to collect robust data.

SEED’s Conservation Research Programme (SCRP) combines the talent of national staff and local guides with that of international researchers, assistants, and volunteers to collect valuable data for SEED’s conservation and research projects. Our guides are responsible for leading surveys using their expert local knowledge for navigating the forests and spotting and identifying elusive wildlife. While our international team participate in surveys, they are responsible for the organisation of the busy schedule and for the accurate recording and handling of data.

This monitoring is crucial for Project Ala to ensure that the reforested corridors are effective in connecting four littoral forest fragments in the Anosy region of southeast Madagascar. Survival and growth surveys of the planted seedlings help monitor the progress of the corridors’ establishment and improve our understanding of how they should be managed in the future. Flora and fauna surveys provide novel information about local biodiversity and contribute to long-term data sets which will show how biodiversity changes as the corridors develop. This change is very gradual, therefore consistent data is important to allow Project Ala to assess its success in conserving local biodiversity, including three species of endangered and endemic lemurs.

With COVID-19 cases now being recorded in the Anosy region and rising across Madagascar, access to the remote community of Sainte Luce may become restricted once again to prevent the spread of the virus. Consequently, the resilience and determination of our national team and local guides has been hugely important for keeping Project Ala’s key activities on track to stand us in good stead for the difficult times to come. 

Having to respond to the challenges of a global pandemic has in fact accelerated a vital aspect of conservation for Project Ala. Building local capacity to independently monitor and manage forests creates a greater level of ownership over the project making the continuation of these activities more realistic in the future. Only through sustained data collection will we be able to determine the impact that connecting fragments of littoral forest has on the vulnerable local biodiversity to ensure its protection for both people and nature. We are proud of the enthusiasm shown by our national team to take on this responsibility and it bodes well for the future of conservation in Sainte Luce.